Nightmares
by SerynnLux
Summary: The King of Attolia recives nightmares from the gods to keep him humble, but what exactly are those dreams? One shot


**Hey, so I've always wondered what the nightmares were that Eugenides got, and I guess this is my answer to that. If you read my other story and there is probably some things in here that will seem a little clearer, but I think it's ok without having read those. Lemme know what you think.**

**All characters and places in this belong to Megan Whalen Turner. **

In the moonlight he looked at her, loving her but fearing her at the same time. He would always fear her, deep down. He loved her, that much was true, and it was that love that scared him. He had given everything to her and in return she had loved him. And that was what scared him, what made his blood run cold and his stomach toss and turn in fear, because he wasn't afraid of her harming him again, at least not physically.

Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful sleep was the only time she looked like that. He ran a finger across her cheek and sighed. She stirred at his touch, with the hint of a smile on her lips.

Yes, he was afraid of her. Some, deep down part of him would always be afraid of her, because she could leave him, turn on him, and tell him it had all been a lie that she had never really loved him. That was what scared him. He was completely in her power and she could destroy him if she chose too.

As he drifted off to sleep he thought about that. Yes she could do so much worse to him then kill him; she could destroy him entirely and leave him alive to live with that feeling for the rest of his life. He gave into the waves of exhaustion that were passing over him, but before he succumbed completely he felt a sharp twinge in the wrist of his right arm, it was the last conscious thing he experienced before the nightmare claimed him.

#/#/#/#

The nightmare always starts with her, no matter which one it was, it always started with her. He saw her, standing there in front of him, wearing a gown of pale green with a collar of ivory flowers dancing at her neckline. For the rest of his life, he would always equate the colour green with fear and pain. Her face was partly in shadow from the flickering light of the fire, but he could still see how beautiful she was, so beautiful it hurt, but there was a cruelty to her face and impassive coldness to her features that terrified him. His entire attention was fixed upon her, so he noticed sort of belatedly the flash of light that was the big man's sword coming down in the direction of his left hand. The Queen's face didn't change as the sword descended on his wrist and his hand disappeared behind the metal of it.

The pain he felt then was like nothing he had ever experienced, even the sword wound he had received when recovering Hamiathes's Gift had been nothing compared to this. He gritted his teeth and breathed in and out violently, his grandfather had always said thieves didn't make noise by accident, he would have been proud of his grandson then. His hands, hand, formed a fist as he fought against showing pain. He had showed her pain once before, when he had begged her for his life that had been a mistake.

"Eugenides" Her voice cut through the agony and fire that was racing through his veins. It was cool and measured. "Have I offended the gods?" From somewhere in the haze that was clouding everything he heard his own voice reply "No, Your Majesty."

He was slowly losing conscious but when the cauterizing iron went on, it blazed like white hot hell. He felt his body jerk against the straps that bound him to the chair and held his breath until his whole world went black; the last thing he saw as impenetrable darkness surrounded him was the Queen's face, her gaze calm and steady, with no hint of remorse.

Through that thick darkness her smooth, even voice saying "Send him to the afterlife blind, deaf and with his tongue cut out as well." There was a cruelty behind those words, a cruelty that couldn't be denied but there was no anger. It was disturbing. Her words were followed by laughter, the sound of a court laughing, as well as the drunken laughter of soldiers mixed with the deep laughter of the Mede with his red beard. He felt hatred burn through him. The blackness became even blacker.

It surrounds him, pressing in on his eyes, finding its way down his throat, muffling his hearing. The dark never scared him before, but right now it does. It wasn't natural, thieves lived their lives in the dark, their time was night, but the blackness that was pressing down on him wormed its way into his chest and filled him with fear.

The dream shifted and he was standing in the palace in Eddis watching the sacred mountain explode. He sees the lava burn his home and people, watches as it eats up a young mother running with her child, cause houses to explode and the sheep and horses trample people to the ground. From behind the skyline of the mountains he sees the gods looking down on their people burning, their faces are cold and impassive, as if the cries of their people mean nothing. The waves of lava are flooding the city rhythmically now, moving in time to the stop of the Medean army. The lava comes ever closer to his window, when it crashes into his windows it burns him and changes the image of what he's seeing.

He is standing in the throne room of the Attolian palace. Nahsureesh is there, his eyes glittering coldly, and his mouth twisted up into a maniacal smile, in his hand is a bloody sword, on the middle finger o hi right hand he wears the seal ring of Attolia. Looking up at him, the thief experiences hatred and fear in equal measure, he tries to surge to his feet, to do what he doesn't know. But there it a sharp pain that prevents him from doing so, looking down he sees that the cut on the side of body , the wound he received from the assassins has been reopened, but this time it goes all the way across his abdomen.

Looking back up he sees the Mede as turned his back, the thief slowly falls back to his knees. Looking around he sees a dark shape a few feet from him, only then does he realize that the only light in the chamber comes from the moon streaming down through the window. Crawling over to the dark mass he sees it is a person. Looking closer he realizes its Irene, her hair is loose, and her eyes are open, but there is no movement that suggests breathing, and looking even closer he sees a dark stain spread across the front of her dress. Something inside of him breaks away. Glancing around the room he sees the more bodies, their attendants and guards he supposes, but he doesn't spare them a thought, because at that moment the doors open, and in rush his daughter and her husband.

He tries to cry out and warn them, but before they can react the Medes are on them, they take down her husband first, stabbing him in the back, he goes down, and his daughter screams in a wordless sound of rage and grief. Before she can go for the knife she holds in her boot they stab her as well and she falls down on top of him. Nahsureesh walks over too her, chuckling under his breath and raises his sword. In a quick, definitive motion he brings down on her stomach, killing her child. The thief feels a rage as pure and strong as anything he has ever felt. It burn right through his chest, sapping his strength, and as he falls, his eyes land on Irene and the last thing he feels is a sensation of free falling into an abyss.

/#/#/#/#/

His own screams woke him, beside him there was a small noise and then she ran her fingers down his arm, caressing the stump where his hand once was. He leaned back against the headboard and closed his eyes, breathing hard.

"Which dream was it this time?" her voice is calm, low, measured. Everything about her soothes him, even though the dreams always start with her.

"All of them together." He reaches up and places his hand on her cheek. "I know they're trying to tell me something. I just wish I knew what" He smiles looking at her. He pitches his voice low, not wanting to wake their daughter sleeping in the cradle next to the bed, still if she could sleep through his screams...

His wife leans against him, placing her head on his chest. He takes her hand and kisses the top of her head. She settles down against him, slowly falling off to sleep. He thinks about the dream for a moment longer, wondering at Eddis being destroyed if the people are now in Sounis, and at the strangeness of who his daughter's husband was, but doesn't dwell on it too much. Night is the time for dreams; day is the time to tease them apart.

The moon shines down through a window, a sliver of light, giving no answers and asking no questions, just watching. As he slowly drifts back to a more peaceful sleep he whispers once more on a breath "I wish I knew."

#/#/#/#

Far beyond, watching from their court in the Sacred Mountain Eugenides and his sister, Hephstia, turned away from the sight of the small family; turning to her brother Hephstia saw a deep look of concentration on his face. This was the first time he had seen the end of the dream she was sure. As she slowly walked away from him she heard him echo the words of his thief "I wish I knew."

Standing alone in the middle of the room Eugenides says quietly "Indeed my little thief, we are trying to tell you something, I just wish I knew what it was" moving quietly across the open court the Thief slips into darkness, just as the sun rises, just as the King of Attolia opens his eyes, to hear a lingering voice saying, "I wish I knew what it was"


End file.
